i actually have some time for deviantART today! (some, i still have an end of the quarter AP stats project i'm supposed to be doing right now that's due 2nd period tomoro... but i'll take some time over none, haha.) God bless my life, however busy and hectic it's been lately. I've been gone for so long! (btw, anyone care to tell me what the heck this sta.sh shenanigans is? it's drivin me nuts. )

anywho, i kind of wanted to talk about this PIPA/SOPA problem I've been hearing so much about lately. It's a very interesting topic to keep a watch on. i've been talking about this with some friends of mine at school, and now i just wanna talk about it with fellow artists. i mean, i've actually been wanting to get on here and talk to some good old dA friends of mine for a while now, but that censored Google logo i saw today just brought the topic back up (as well as the blacked out wiki).

I tried looking at that SOPA/PIPA talk that dA posted today, but i was expecting too much. i wanted a nice, friendly, educated discussion, like they encouraged, but a lot of the things i saw were just a lot of fluff and irrelevant, unconvincing statements. (supporting sopa-pipa just because it 'wakes up' a 'lazy' America? cussing out the government and the entirety of the nation? raging about how angry you are without saying why. I know this is freedom of speech, but c'mon! i'd love to have a nice, educated, troll-free conversation on the internet for once.) granted, i'm on most their sides about sopa-pipa being rediculous, but they just didn't convince me enough.

i wanna hear things that bring up a valid point, that make me think long after something's been said, that puts a completely new spin on my thought process on this.

or... just your opinion. (truly, i just wanna talk to my dA friends again. confusing, i kno. XD) please! talk to me however you'd like, let me know what you think is happening, will happen, and the morality of the situation. be a voice of reason with me. no guarantee i'll reply soon, what with all of the work i have to do, but... i'd like to hear you out.

(from this point on, my rant begins. read it or not, but really, feel free to skip it. just leave me a comment! i'd love that! really! XD)</u>

as for my thoughts.... i actually did an essay late last year on the topic of copyright infringement. does that make me an expert on this stuff? HECK, NO! but i made my stance very clear:

I am neutral. I completely support a justice system to copyright infringers. But. I also completely support the idea of sentencing the right copyright infringers, or having justice the right way, or finding alternative ways for copyrighted material to stay safely on the internet without harming the copyright holders.

we all know copyright infringement is wrong. as an artist community, i can say with deep faith that a majority of us understand how bad it is to take what is not yours. there are all sorts of forms of copyright infringement online: free downloadable games, song downloads, background music that has not been originally composed or legally posted. true, Hollywood and big name brands won't be losing too much money on this, but the money you use to pay for video games and songs doesn't just go to them; it also pays for minimum-wage cashiers at the electronics section of Target or Best Buy or GameStop. But how can they compete with the free, illegal source that's online? Deny it if you'd like, but copyright infringement is truly just stealing.

and then there's borderline copyright infringing, which is the greyer form of infringement that everyone is on the fence about: posting amv's of your favorite cartoons on Youtube, making a Youtube video with a song you've never written before, linking to whole songs you've never written before on FB, Twitter, and so on. I browse the internet avidly; i click on these videos and look at the links of them most everyday. Are these crimes? Who should be punished, the person that posted the video, the person who linked to it on FB, or the person that provided illegal downloads for the video?

Is deletion of whole websites really the answer?

as for my thoughts on sopa-pipa, i believe it's just too extreme an idea to even be realistic. I like the point that often comes up in this argument: due process is completely gone under sopa-pipa. there's no real trial, and deletion is almost automatic. it's morally and logically wrong.

in the broader vision, the internet will be slowed down. surely, whole deletions of whole websites will affect other websites that are affiliated or linked to it. the internet will be more empty; virtually any website with uncopyrighted content will be down. (that. is. A LOT. of websites.) the economy may even suffer more, with more saved money feeding hollywood and potentially even the Govenrment. (? i'm unsure about that last point; is it even as bad as i make it sound? all of these are guesses, really.)

in the extreme vision... there will be riots wherever there are government buildings if this is approved (are there already riots?), the word TERRORISM will pop up somewhere and will label those protestors who are going against an American Bill, American citizens will be overall ashamed and angry with their country and government (this is already happening, isn't it?), and the internet will turn into a prison present in everyone's homes, with hackers and hi-jackers aiming for a Robin Hood-esque motives, however illegal it may be.

I don't want sopa-pipa approved. i don't want the internet to be completely blocked, and virtually shut down. I don't want those extreme, cynical visions of mine to become a reality.

I do want copyright infringement to be dealt with, and dealt with properly. I want copyrighted material to stay online, for the good of the people, and because I enjoy it being there; but I want this to be legal.

My solution? it's probably not a solution to the whole sopa-pipa thing, but it's the only thing I've got (and I mentioned it in my essay, hohoho). Creative Commons is a unique tool, and copyright-holders may post the Creative Commons logo (a circle with two C's in it) on their gallery, website, etc. What it basically does is allow their work to be posted online, but acknowledges the fact that the posted material does belong to that artist/copyright holder.

[link]

... and yup. that's what i think.

anywho, if you found a flaw in my argument, my presentation, my knowledge of what sopa-pipa or copyright infringement or anything else is, that's perfectly fine. tell it to my face. talk with me about it. let me know what you think, and what you think needs to be changed. really. i'm here to get my thoughts out there, but more importantly, i'm here to listen to what others' true and unyielding stances and inputs are.